Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Viewthrough Measurement Consortium supports the
IAB's position. The idea of a centralized cookie clearinghouse run by people with anti-business agenda is
suspect. When Mozilla forces users out by default, that smacks of paternalism if
not Bolshevism. The natural quid pro quo between a publisher and their online
audience is being hi-jacked as a result of these
maneuvers. Meanwhile, the biggest threat to privacy is likely the Feds
who have effectively unlimited resources and can use force to compel behavior.
Free people have a choice.

The question for the consumer (as always) is what's
in it for me? Today the choice is free content or free content (no
ads/tracking). Some will choose the latter. Right
now, consumers of ad-supported content really don't know what it costs to
provide it and there is no penalty for blocking ads or cookies. VMC's position
is to let the consumer decide: their choice should be to either pay for the
content or accept ads/tracking...everybody else should get blocked by the
publishers - meaning no or very limited
content/functionality. Users can always opt-back in.

While it is great that browser companies want to
provide consumers with more control, the consumers themselves ought to make
their decision in a way that is also truly informed. Publishers have really got
to wake-up to actively owning this - that day is coming, albeit slowly. For the Bolsheviks, there
really is no free lunch.

About the VMC

Viewthrough.org is the home of the Viewthrough Measurement Consortium, an ad hoc collaboration between among digital ad industry/analytics professionals seeking to improve the understanding of this important digital advertising metric.